LANCASTER, Pa. — A Manor Township man faces a minimum of 25 years in prison after he was found guilty by jury last Wednesday of sexually assaulting a 6-year-old around 2014.
Paul Woolery, 52, of the 1600 block of Colonial Manor Drive, is already a registered sex offender due to a prior conviction in New York in 2000, which makes his mandatory sentence a minimum of 25 years and a maximum of 50.
Prosecuters presented evidence and testimony throughout trial that the now teenage victim disclosed the abuse when she was 8-years-old to a family member but was afraid to tell anyone else. The victim disclosed the abuse again when she was 11-years-old after seeing Woolery at her father’s home for the first time since the assault occurred.
Manor Township Police began investigating on Feb. 5, 2020, after they received a report from Children and Youth Services that alleged a child around the ages of 5 and 6 was assaulted in a family member’s home. The child wet the bed while sleeping with her aunt and then laid down in the bed where Woolery was sleeping before the assault occurred, police said.
The victim pretended to be asleep during the assault and disclosed the abuse in the interview with Lancaster County Children’s Alliance on Feb. 10, 2020.
The victim says she brought scissors and a knife to school because she was afraid Woolery would find her there.
“I thought he would hurt me again and I thought maybe if I had these things, I could protect myself,” the victim said in a forensic interview video with the Lancaster County Children’s Alliance presented at trial, according to the District Attorney's Office. “I didn’t do a very good job last time.”
“These are heavy words that came from a heavy burden on the back of a child,” Assistant District Attorney Jessica Collo said. “And she carried that burden alone until now, just as she carried those weapons in her fifth-grade backpack. That though she's 14 now, she's still a little girl who deserves justice almost 10 years later.”
The jury deliberated for about two hours before returning its guilty verdicts.
Woolery was convicted of aggravated indecent assault of a child, unlawful contact with a minor, indecent assault of a person under 13 and corruption of minors following the three-day trial.
The judge revoked bail and sentencing will occur following a presentence investigation, prosecutors said.
